The kitchen has always been one of, if not the most important room in the home. Activities generally center on this room. Through the years, there have been many innovations, additions, deletions, and improvements that have changed kitchens for the better. Some of these items are so commonplace now that it is hard to even think of them as changes. It seems as though they have always been a part of the kitchen in every home.
One such addition is the kitchen island. Kitchens used to consist of counters and cabinets along all the wall surfaces with some appliances mixed in. Any open space in the middle of the kitchen was reserved for a table. However, with the addition of the breakfast nook to many house plans, it became clear that kitchen storage islands with seating would be a better use of that space. Not only will you have some seating if you want people to sit close by while you prepare food, but you also increase your storage space and counter space.
Another great addition to the modern kitchen is the dishwasher. The dishwasher is a relatively modern invention, only becoming common in the average home in the 1970s. Before then, most people washed and dried their dishes by hand. This was definitely more time consuming because you couldn’t just put the dishes out of sight and therefore out of your mind. You needed to wash them, dry them, and put them away immediately or your kitchen was a mess. The dishwasher allowed the average home owner to be a bit lazier. You no longer had to scrub every dish clean, a simple rinsing would do. And you could load the dirty dishes in the machine quickly and not think about them again until the machine was full and you ran it.